A Monday Minute – Why We Need A Little Holiday, Every Day

On our recent ski trip to Austria I was chatting to one of the managers at our hotel. I was saying something along the lines of how wonderful it was to be on holiday. His response? ‘Yes. But you should make a little holiday in your day, every day’.

I should probably admit here that he was the bar manager. This was the first time I have ever been given life advice by a bartender. For a moment I could’ve closed my eyes and imagined I was in Casablanca…the film, that is. It was way too cold to even imagine I was in the place.

Anyway, I digress. I think the translation of this is probably lacking. We had started off speaking German (mine is terrible) but it turned out that actually he was Czech and so we switched to English (I would love to show off and say we started speaking in Czech but sadly I have a stereotypically English command of multiple languages).

A Little Holiday, Every Day

But it made me think. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that no-stress, relaxed holiday feeling every day, even just for a few minutes?

My mind immediately leapt to an image of myself sprawled in a deck chair in our front room in the middle of winter, shades and kaftan on, piña colada in hand. And while that would be pretty fabulous – although I will need to switch out that piña colada for a margarita, please – I think that attaining that feeling is achievable in a less ridiculous way.

But this is not about making every day a holiday. This is about finding just a little corner of time in the day to do something lovely for yourself.

For me, this is focussing on doing something I enjoy. Every. Single. Day. But not just rushing it or doing a million other things the same time. Whatever that enjoyable thing is – and, you know, it could just be drinking a cup of tea – I am going to be mindful while I do it.

Doing what you enjoy – mindfully

Speaking of drinking, let’s talk about wine. (Hmm…no wonder it was the barman dispensing advice…). I enjoy drinking wine, but am cutting down at the moment. So I have decided that when I do have a glass, I will make sure I choose a good one. I will drink it out of a nice glass and enjoy it…rather than just downing it mindlessly while I scroll through my phone and inhale a bowl of crisps. Just me?

Or taking the dog for a walk. Too often recently I have been on my phone or distracted and not taking in any of my surroundings. Seems to be a common theme here actually…whatever you are doing to get your little zen moment, it should not involve a phone!

And, let’s face it people, mid January is a pretty crappy time of the year. It’s cold and grey and miserable. So make sure you getting some holiday vibes in the form of vitamin D too…most of us are sorely lacking in this and it really can impact how we feel.

What will you do to give yourself a little bit of a holiday today? Because you definitely deserve it…